1st Langley Troops Due On Friday

More than 1,000 troops with the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing from Langley Air Force Base will begin returning Friday in the first wave of homecoming from the Persian Gulf region.

Planes with members of the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing left Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, at 11 p.m. EST Wednesday and headed home to Hampton, Langley officials said.

Several hundred troops from the 71st Squadron are scheduled to arrive Friday, and several hundred from the 27th Squadron are scheduled to arrive Saturday, said Lt. Mary Dillon, a spokeswoman at Langley.

Officials were initially concerned that bad weather over the Atlantic might delay takeoff, but the planes departed on schedule, Dillon said.

A public homecoming ceremony at the base is scheduled for noon Friday, Langley officials said. The base will open to the public at 10:30 a.m. for the first homecoming event at Air Force bases.

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that 1,854 Air Force troops would be among the first 14,000 from all service branches returning Friday and Saturday, following a ``first-in, first-out'' withdrawal policy.

Six F-15 Eagles are scheduled to touch down around 1 p.m. Friday, Dillon said. Col. John McBroom, commander of the First Tactical Fighter Wing, Lt. Col. ``Pip'' Pope, commander of the 71st squadron, and Capt. Steven Tate, the first American flier to shoot down an Iraqi warplane, will be aboard, Dillon said.

The squadron's remaining F-15s and planes carrying personnel are scheduled to arrive throughout the afternoon, she said.

About 2,200 troops from Langley, in the 71st and 27th Tactical Fighter Squadrons and the wing's support units, were stationed in Dhahran during Operation Desert Storm.

Families of the troops are excited, according to Grace Wiglusz, whose husband, Sgt. Keith Wiglusz, is in the 1st Component Repair Squad. During a briefing at the base Wednesday, families of the deployed troops were told to expect them ``soon,'' she said. No date was given for the return, and families were told to wait by their phones for the word, she said.

The squadrons, each with about 24 F-15 Eagle fighter jets, were deployed days after Iraq's Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. Accompanying them were the 27th Aircraft Maintenance Unit and the 71st Aircraft Maintenance Unit. The other major units from Langley include the 1st Combat Support Group and the 1st Tactical Hospital.